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Lebashe Investment Group, the Johannesburg investment firm chaired by South African tycoon Tshepo Mahloele, has reduced its stake in iOCO Ltd. to 14.36% from 17%, though it remains the largest shareholder in the technology services company formerly known as EOH Holdings.
The change covers the year through July 31, 2026, iOCO's financial year-end, and appears in the company's latest shareholder disclosures. iOCO had about 638.1 million shares in issue, which puts Lebashe's holding at roughly 91.6 million shares. At Tuesday's closing price of R4.65 in Johannesburg, the stake is worth about 426 million rand ($25.7 million). A year earlier, a 17% holding would have amounted to about 108.5 million shares.
iOCO has been buying back its own shares since August 2025, which on its own would lift the percentage owned by every other investor. Lebashe's smaller share points to a reduction of about 17 million shares over the year.
Ownership shifts
Other large investors moved in the opposite direction. The Government Employees Pension Fund, South Africa's biggest pension fund, raised its holding to 6.42% from 5.23%. An HSBC Private Bank Suisse omnibus account held 13.84% and Stanlib held 4.63%, both little changed.
iOCO's latest empowerment certificate shows black ownership of 56.47%, up from 44.66% a year earlier, with black women owning 21.64%. The company kept its Level 1 rating under South Africa's black economic empowerment rules for an eighth straight year.
The business has returned to profit after a long restructuring. Profit after tax rose 39% to R357 million ($21.5 million) in the year through July, on revenue of R5.73 billion ($345 million), up from R5.58 billion.
A long partnership
Lebashe became EOH's black empowerment partner in 2018, when it agreed to invest as much as R1 billion in the company. EOH was then hit by the discovery of irregular government contracts in its public-sector business, which led to years of asset sales and debt cuts before it renamed itself iOCO. Lebashe held 13.06% before it committed in 2022 to put a further R100 million into the company during a capital raise.
Mahloele co-founded Lebashe in 2015 with financing commitments from the Public Investment Corporation, which manages South African public servants' pensions. The group also owns Arena Holdings, publisher of the Sunday Times and Business Day, and about 8.5 million shares in Capitec Bank Holdings Ltd., the country's largest bank by clients. Mahloele previously worked at the PIC and co-founded Harith General Partners, an African infrastructure investor that is buying budget airline FlySafair.
Figures were converted at R16.6 to the dollar.
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